Top 5 Key Findings from the TFM&A Show 2011

Made Essential Reading on 05 April 2011 Charlotte Olney

I want to start this post by saying “Hello”. I’ve not written for The Essential Blog before so this has been a long time coming and it was a great experience.

My main role for Essential is to create, distribute and report on client emails. As writing is not in my everyday role, I had forgotten how much fun it can be. I found it helped me to evaluate my thoughts in greater detail and discover ideas I would not have otherwise.

Anyhow, enough about me, you’re here to hear about the TFM&A exhibition, so here goes…enjoy!

The Technology for Marketing and Advertising show (TFM&A) is the UK’s largest and longest running multi-channel marketing, media and advertising event. It is held yearly at Earl’s Court in London. Having previously exhibited at the event it was great to be a visitor and attend all the seminars on offer. I attended day 2 of the show; Wednesday 2nd March, 2011. Below I have outlined my 5 key findings from the day.

1. Hesitation to use social media marketing methods

There have been many advances in the digital world in recent times, with social media making a drastic shift; from a personal channel of expression to a very effective channel for companies to send their messages to the ready-built audience.

Talking to people at the show, it was apparent that many of them were unsure how to take their first steps in utilising the business opportunities available to them through Social Media. One delegate described it, quite aptly, as a “minefield”. This attitude seemed to be shared by individuals in all positions from Marketing Executives to Company Directors.

There are clearly, as we were shown at the show, many positives to using Social Media in Marketing Campaigns. However, the single biggest reason for not taking the first step seems to be fear. I have outlined the pro’s and con’s below:

Pros

• Ready-made audience
• Message can spread quickly
• Easy use of different mediums. I.e. – video on YouTube.
• Free!

Cons

• Not targeted

Both

• Can reply in public domain if agree / disagree. Reputation of company effected.

2. Relevancy

The key is relevancy. Firstly when considering Social Media as a marketing tool always use the most relevant channel to suit the message. Secondly make sure the messaging suits the audience. A great example of Social Media fulfilling a campaign is Icelandair* who, during the ash cloud saga of 2010, reached out to their customers through Twitter. They used it as a way to feed information about the flights to their stranded passengers. No promotional messaging was used and this was a free and timely way to show that they were doing all they could in a difficult situation.

*1 Source: Social Media Marketing Seminar / Tying Social Media and Marketing Together: Designing a multi-channel campaign / Archna Trivedi, Head of Relationship Management, ExactTarget.

3. Be Prepared / Be Surprised

The main concern when channelling a campaign though Social Media is the risk to a company’s reputation. This does not mean a campaign should not be actioned, but it is essential to have a plan in place should bad feedback be received. This happened and was tackled, by a cosmetic company when confronted by an animal rights campaigner on Facebook*. Rather than ignore the issue the cosmetic’s company responded with a letter outlining their reasons and also published it online for all to see. This resulted in the campaigner publicly stating that it was great to hear a real response from such a large company and also ensured the public could see the truth.

The power of the social platform can also boost a company profile unexpectedly. This was showcased by the Facebook campaign (completely initiated and pushed by Facebook users) centred around bringing back the Cadbury’s Wispa. Cadbury saw that this was a popular demand and after 4 years off the shelf, the Wispa was bought back into production in 2007. In this instance the customer stated what they wanted and steered the business accordingly. Cadbury could also be confident of the success due to the demand and passion shown by the public.

* Source: The Future of the Social Web: Facebook’s vision for brands being social / Stephen Haines, Commercial Director, Facebook UK.

4. Email Marketing is not dead!

The new methods should not mean that email should not be used as a marketing tool or that it is being replaced. It is a highly effective tool for targeted messaging and even though the audience will (generally) be lower than the Social Space, the recipients have opted-in or are part of a targeted database, making them highly relevant to the mailing. This means chances are that the conversion rates will be higher than social media when measuring the percentage converted with the number of messages sent.

5. Reporting

We can assume that, as stated above, when targeting a campaign the more relevant the data the better the results. However with social media campaigns there is no concise way of measuring how many people have viewed the campaign or delved further into the details. This is in stark contrast to email marketing. Many email tools are available to create and send campaigns and sophisticated reports can be generated instantly. These at the very least cover open rates and click rates as well as manage opt-outs and bounce data. Additionally most of the tools can then be plugged into a web analytics system and track the customer journey once they have clicked through an email. This is particularly important in a B2B company where our clients rely on us to deliver campaigns and provide detailed feedback and insight into the success

Weighing everything from the show up, I believe social media is a great channel to market in, albeit a new and emerging one which is not 100% understood / utilised in many cases. It is also important to remember that established channels such as email marketing are still alive and kicking and make interesting campaigns from build to reporting. All in all choose the best channel for your needs and budget; or indeed use them all in sync. Most of all don’t be afraid to try something new (as long as you are prepared for all eventualities) and have fun with your campaigns.